This episode poked fun at so many shounen cliches, before many of them even existed. Remember Dragonball Z? How it had the longest five minutes ever? This episode also had one minute that was much longer than usual, only for the characters to debunk this later because the character in question got distracted.
Or the part when Jojo bluffed himself out of his own death. In most shounen series this would feel like a complete cop-out because there are so many fights that end with just parties retreating without resolving anything. In this case it manages to pull it off though: before in the series nobody other than Dio retreated, and if Jojo didn’t bluff his way out, he would have died without question.
And then there was that incredibly silly part where Jojo played fake, like a child. It was so ridiculous, yet hilarious that it ended up working. In fact, all of Joseph’s ideas were just crazy in this episode, from grabbing a bunch of steel balls to attack with (oh, the symbolism….), to trying to use freaking dynamite again (not to mention how that dynamite was just shrugged off by that other guy). Also, did Jojo just get engaged to both of them?
By the way, I love the narrator in how incredibly cheesy he was in this episode. And this was to the point that he became awesome again: he just felt so sincere in his 80s cheese straight from an old cartoon, only taken even more over the top. Especially when he tried to comment on how Jojo was trying to run away while playing dead.
So next up will be the training arc. Be wise, Jojo: turn it into something interesting. Make the characters more powerful while also being as fun as you’ve ever been. Don’t get lost in your own exposition like this.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)
Having read the manga, I can confirm that your worries will be unfulfilled.
ACDC is TNT, he’s dynamite!
The soundtrack was pretty cool too, I could hear some dubstep playing when Wham did his Sacred Sandstorm(?).
According to my memory, jojo’s training arcs aren’t exactly fun. That’s not to say there’s no creativity, just that it manifests slightly differently.
Having read parts 1-4, the only training arc I remember was this one in Battle Tendency.
In part 3 Jotaro is badass without training…
And part 4 isn’t a battle manga.
same as salce, cant remember any training arcs other than frog punching in part one and “that” in part two, probably because later arcs adopt the stand concept, which fights revolve around creativity. now that i think about it, most fights revolve around creativity rather than powerlevels, which makes training arcs pretty pointless.
I’ve never watched a single episode of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: it’s shounen, it’s violent and not really my cup of tea. Yet, I always find myself reading your weekly reviews because of how expressive they are and how much fun you seem to have while watching Jojo. I guess that you make it look so fun that I have fun just by reading your opinion about it. Now that’s a good blogger.
Although I can’t agree with you lumping this series together with a simple shonen, I can. Agree that these weekly reviews are fun, it gives me another reason to look forward to each episode. the reaction of folks new to hte franchise are quite funny
The innovative point of JOJO part 2 was the playful joking character of Joseph. His tricks and jokes against the serious and masculine enemies like Hokuto no Ken’s is fun. Don’t think, feel.
First I didnt wanne watch this at all. cause the style was just so “ugh”…But after reading some comments on this show I just thought – might as well give it a try. Just for the heck of it. And I gotta admit – this episode was pretty genious. I had a lot of fun watching this.
It is so over the top that it is great. See Shin Mazinger for reference.
FABULOUS!!!
Having seen the last episode, i can say that the training is awesome and not boring at all unlike many training arcs of many shounen.